


Storytelling

by dasakuryo



Series: What the Future Has In Store [1]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-05
Updated: 2016-02-05
Packaged: 2018-05-18 10:26:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5925057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dasakuryo/pseuds/dasakuryo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aside from being great for spending some quality family time, a rainy Sunday morning is as good as any other day to pose some questions to your parents, little Dawn knows that much. Whether she'd get answers or not, it's another matter entirely.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Storytelling

**Author's Note:**

> Heavily influenced by my own headcanons, since I know little of The Flash expanded universe other than the basics. Nonetheless, thanks for reading! :)

“Daddy, how did you and mommy met?”

Dawn's question brought his fingers to a halt. He stopped cornrowing his daughter's hair to think his answer through. What should he tell his daughter? Certainly, if Dawn then asked for further information, he'd need to start by the proper beginning. And if Dawn asked for further information, it would be a very long story indeed. Then again, the copious downpour and electric storm outside surely meant they wouldn't be going anywhere that morning. He'd the time.

He caught Iris biting her lips to hide her smile. Don stirred in his sleep on her mother's chest, Iris pulled up the blankets and tugged them around the boy's little frame. He resumed the braiding movement of his fingers, carefully pulling each strand below the previous one.

“Daddy?” 

Her insistent tone forced him to divert his gaze from the braids to his little girl's face. He fought down a tiny smile. It was odd, actually, how much both twins took after their mother. Save for the shape of the jawline, chin and general angularity of facial features, especially marked on the brow, which were his. The rest was all Iris. 

Particularly, Dawn had an uncanny resemblance to Iris as a child. She could even pull the same annoyed face; the contrast of her green eyes gave even more emphasis to her expressions— 

Which she was doing precisely then.

“Well, we first met when we were kids. A little while before your grandma passed away,” he chose the words deliberately, since they hadn't spoken with the twins about Eobard Thwane yet, “we went to the same primary school.”

He was just finishing securing the elastic band around the braid end when he heard Dawn's acute insistent voice again, “yeah, but when did you know you liked her?” her voice had nearly resembled a whine, tinged with frustration. Clearly, Dawn couldn't believe his father hadn't grasped the vital and important part of her previous question she'd to ask again.

“Well, I don't really know when exactly, it kind of... hit me I guess,” he replied, shyly.

“So like love at first sight? Like in Disney movies?” came Dawn's inquisitive voice again. “And then you went to live with grandpa and mommy?” there was a rising tone in her reasoning, as if she wasn't quite sure she was correlating the bits and pieces she'd gotten from her parents past correctly.

Barry hummed affirmatively. Dawn shifted about on the blankets, and fell silent again. Barry took a peep at her daughter's expression when he leaned to section hair for another braid. She was frowning, hand to her chin, pensive. He was halfway through the new cornrow when Dawn stirred.

“So you lived with her and you liked her,” the girl declared, then raised her hand up and started counting; she halted when she suddenly ran out of fingers. She turned to Iris, and Barry had to maneuver to not tear at her coils and manage to keep on braiding. “Mommy, was daddy- like old when he kissed you?” 

Barry heard Iris tinkling giggle. 

“No! He wasn't that old.”

Under other circumstances, he'd have protested at the insinuation; hadn't he been so busy braiding Dawn's hair perfectly and neatly as any other ordinary father —which was really just fancy wording to mean he hadn't resorted to any meta-human speed. He sighed instead, holding back a grunt. Dawn paid no heed to her father's distress, for she kept on asking further. She was still wearing that frown on her face; she must have rolled her eyes too, growing tired that the adults kept evading the question.

“But when he told me he loved me, it was really special,” Iris went on, “he told me more than once, but there's one time I can't remember.”

“Why? What happened?”

“Well, daddy was fighting this really bad guy, the same that kidnapped grandpa Joe, trying to keep Central safe from a huge wave... dad ran too fast and accidentally went back in time,” Iris explained, patiently. Both twins have heard the story about him running to stop the massive wave from breaking on the shore, “he captured the bad guy before he could do anything or hurt anyone. But the bad guy was locked away so grandpa wasn't in danger, so I didn't try to rescue him. Dad couldn't bring himself to say anything, and I wasn't brave enough to say anything either.”

“And then you got mad at dad?” 

“Yes, because he chose not to tell me he was The Flash... and I thought he knew he could trust me enough to do so. I got mad he said he did it to keep me safe,” Iris said, a hint of pain in her voice that didn't go unnoticed for Barry. He'd the sudden urge to pull her into a hug. Suddenly he found Dawn was glaring at him, frowning, and up to that moment he was unaware his daughter could manage to pull such a disapproving look. The tiny freckles on her nose clogged up, forming that lighter brown spot of disapprobation Barry knew all too well by now.

“Mommy can take care of herself! Why you lied dad?” she sounded most angry about that. Surprisingly, she hadn't clenched her fists. 

“Because I was being selfish, and didn't really think it through,” he said, a pang of guilt washed over him at his daughter distress, “I should have trusted mom since the beginning.”

Silence settled over the room. At first Dawn seemed impatient, as if about to ask another question, but she too fell silent. Barry glanced sideways, Iris flashed him a smile. She reached out and squeezed his shoulder. His lips curled up in a smile. He finished wrapping the last braid with the yellow elastic band, and before Dawn could crawl away from his reach, he wrapped his arms around her and blew a raspberry on her cheek. 

The girl let out a high-pitched giggle, and tried to unclasp his hands to set herself free from the treacherous embrace. Barry used her daughter weaknesses to his advantage, he started tickling her mercilessly on her sides, much to Iris protests. Don jolted awake with all the sudden noise.

“That's for calling me old, young lady!”

“Don!” was all the girl could utter between giggles and shrills.

Apparently Don had recovered pretty soon from his drowsiness, for he found himself being tickled everywhere. Was Don using his speed again? A quick assess when he rolled over, trying to get away, actually revealed that Iris was plotting with their son against him. And she knew exactly where he was most ticklish. How dared she betray him like this?

“I'm outnumbered!” he chuckled, purposefully letting the kids win that round, hands up in defeat. Both Don and Dawn looked at each other for a brief moment, barely a second, before almost throwing themselves at him to keep on the torture. Little effect did Iris words have on them. 

“We shall have revenge!” both twins chorused. At that stage, Barry couldn't pinpoint if his sides hurt either from laughing or from the merciless quick prickles at his skin coming from Dawn and Don. He tried to outsmart them resorting to his speed, just to find that they noticed when he did so, and reacted accordingly.

Eventually, too tired, both children collapsed on his chest heavily, Barry suddenly out of breath. Iris face appeared on his line of sight, towering above him. Her face lit up with joy, a wide, amused smile on her lips. Her eyes grew wide in disbelief before she started giggling and they squinted. 

Barry grunted when Dawn moved hastily without any bit of care, apparently assuming his body was just an extension of the mattress. It wasn't long before Don imitated his sister. The situation resulted in another grunt and a soft touch of Iris hand to his cheek. She helped him sit upright when the twins were off him, still displaying those mischievous grins and pretty proud of themselves, apparently -if the way they were laughing in tandem while eyeing him was anything to go by.

“Dad, do bad guys know your ticklish?” Don asked, but he couldn't pinpoint if it was out of innocence or a genuine question. The way Dawn burst out laughing made him think it was the latter. Those two-

“Now, easy you two,” Iris pointed a warning finger at them, “or you won't get the end of the story.”

“What story?” Don asked.

And as Dawn filled him with the details, by means of speedster talking, Iris snuggled against Barry chest. He gently laced his fingers between hers. That earned him a kiss on the nose, at which he crinkled it. 

“Oh, but I know the story! Uncle Cisco told me,” Don's voice grew conceited all of a sudden; he grinned and puffed out his chest. 

Barry frowned in confusion. That certainly stopped Iris improvised connect-the-dots on his face. Her fingers stopped their absent-minded brushing along imaginary lines between Barry's countless freckles and moles. Both turned to look at their son.

“What did Cisco tell you?” Barry's eye squinted. Cisco certainly had a proclivity for colourful story-telling and dramatics, especially when he just went along and blurted out random appreciations that flickered through his mind without a second thought at the moment of speaking. 

“He said you were pinning after mum for like forever until you decided to tell her you loved her... again,” Don explained, his face suddenly very serious, his voice taking on the tone he used to tell Iris what he'd just learnt right after the excited mommy, mommy did you know that, “and that it took mommy being in danger a lot of times, and dad nearly dying other times, until you realised you loved each other,” he concluded.

Iris raised an eyebrow. “Well, it's pretty accurate,” she recognised.

“He says that when daddy took you on the first date, he planned it like... for a week,” he frowned, “that he changed his mind a lot... Tío Paco doesn't know how many because he kept ranting talking really really fast and he couldn't hear.” 

“Really?”

“Yes,” Don assured, face serious, “Tío Paco says that if we want to hear stories about you two, we ask him, 'cuz you two will leave the embarrassing parts out,” the boy argued.

“We should go ask Uncle Cisco, Don,” Dawn interjected, enthusiastically.

“Nobody is going anywhere with this rain—”

Iris warning scold was cut short by a whoosh. She glanced sideways at Barry, sighing, blowing her hair away from her face unsuccessfully. He flashed a smile at her, and within a second her hair had been pulled back and tied up into a high ponytail. There was the faint sound of whistles as the kids ran their way to the door.

“On it.”


End file.
